**5. Conclusions**

This work presented a novel load disaggregation method to be used in cognitive meters, making the "smart" concept from smart meters more reasonable.

The novel methodology called PSB uses the power signature technique with a load recognition from an appliance dataset. The method detects the appliance ON and OFF events during the power signature observation, and the method uses classification algorithms to detect the appliance. The association of the classification algorithm and the power signature recognizes appliances that present power variation during their regular operation. The method also recognizes several loads simultaneously.

When evaluating the proposed method through computational simulations, all the loads were classified correctly. The PSB obtained an accuracy of 95% for real data from a typical residence.

In the future, the authors intend to work on energy efficiency evaluation, associated to identifying appliances. Moreover, the authors would like to apply the PSB to other smart grid applications, such as energy managemen<sup>t</sup> using the concept of Virtual Power Plants and NILM applied to a group of residential installations. Future papers will deal with such ideas and prominent results.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, W.A.d.S., F.D.G., F.P.M., L.C.P.d.S. and M.G.S.; Formal analysis, F.P.M.; Funding acquisition, F.P.M. and L.C.P.d.S.; Investigation, W.A.d.S.; Methodology, W.A.d.S., F.D.G. and F.P.M.; Project administration, W.A.d.S. and L.C.P.d.S.; Resources, F.P.M.; Software, W.A.d.S. and F.D.G.; Supervision, F.P.M.; Validation, W.A.d.S., F.D.G. and M.G.S.; Writing—original draft, W.A.d.S.; Writing—review & editing, W.A.d.S., F.D.G., F.P.M., L.C.P.d.S. and M.G.S.

**Funding:** This research was supported by FAPESP (Sao Paulo Research Foundation) grants number 2012/19375-1 and 2016/08645-9, as well as by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
